We spent Friday morning doing the
Dawson Creek historic walking tour. They have done a nice job of
putting up plaques on the various highlights in the downtown area.
They have also done many beautiful murals depicting Dawson Creek's
history. Unfortunately, we didn't take our camera with us, so didn't
get any shots, but you can check them out at
We also picked up some nice sweet kopf
and a loaf of bread at the Tasty Bakery.
In the evening, we chatted with a
couple, Bobby and Marcia, from Texas about what we should see and
where the best places were to stay if we go there next winter.
Here is the Alaska Highway Mile0 signpost, the start of our trip to Dawson City.
We started our trip up the Alaska
Highway on Saturday morning. While hooking the trailer up, we
noticed that the nuts had come off the rubber bumpers on the trailer
hitch. We taped them down just to make sure that they didn't come
out of place until we can replace the nuts. We stopped in Ft St
John for Orange Julius's, then decided to carry on to Fort Nelson.
We saw a moose along the edge of the clearing by the highway between
Ft. St. John and Pink Mountain, but didn't get a picture this time. We were
surprised at how straight some of the stretches of road were, with
not too much to see besides the trees. We checked into the Triple G
Campground in Ft Nelson.
It rained until the evening on Sunday.
We had a quiet day in the campground, watching the Nascar race from
Dover. Joan cut John's hair, repairing the bad haircut done when we
were in Calgary.
Monday, we drove from Fort Nelson to
Liard River Hotsprings. It was still overcast, so we were only able
to get glimpses of the mountains as we drove across the northern end
of the Rockies. We stopped at the Tetsa River Services, which is
'the cinamon bun center of the galactic cluster'. The buns were quite
tasty, and almost big enough to justify the $5 each. We filled up
with diesel at Muncho Lake, with the most expensive prices so far at
$1.89 We did get some advice thrown in free, as someone had just
taken out the cooling lines on their car driving over rock which had
fallen on the road from the cliffs next to the lake. Fortunately, we
didn't run into any rocks on the road. After km's and km's of
wildlife warning signs, we finally saw a Stone sheep at the base of a
rocky face. It was kind enough to stay posed for us as we walked
back from the first turnout we could get to.
Closer to Liard River,
we saw 2 separate wood buffalo grazing along the edge of the road.
They paid absolutely no attention to us, and the group ahead, as we
stopped to take a picture.
Once we got parked in the Provincial
Park campground at Liard Hotsprings, we enjoyed a nice soak in the
hotsprings, chatting with other travelers.
These are natural pools
with a gravel bed.
Our night here was our first night without any
services since we bought the 5th wheel in May last year. I was a little concerned about whether
the furnace running frequently during the night would leave the
batteries with enough juice to run in the slide-outs and raise the
goose neck up to hitch it to the truck. The latest slide-out was a
little slow coming in, but we didn't have any problem. Once we
hooked up, we walked to the 'hanging gardens' by the hot pools.
The
trip from Liard to Watson Lake was fantastic. We saw more animals
along the roadside on Tuesday, than we have seen for the whole trip.
There were several bears, a few groups of wood bison including one
that had a couple of bears close by, and even a moose couple that we
just caught a glimpse of as we passed a small body of water. We
weren't able to get pictures of all them, particularly the moose, but
we did get some good poses.
We stopped at the Coal River Lodge,
only about an hour out for an early lunch, as they advertised good
bison burgers. Despite having only a few tables, the food was worth
the stop. They also had a selection of t-shirts, stuffed animals and
signs that we perused while waiting for our lunch to be prepared.
We stopped at a viewpoint above the Liard River valley, to get some
photos to show the nature of the valley. After arriving in Watson
Lake and getting set up at the Downtown RV Park, we walked over to
the famous Sign Post Forest, checked-in at the visitor centre to get
excellent information on the Yukon highlights, and then wandered back
to our RV to settle in for the evening.
Wednesday morning, we decided to stay
for another day, since yesterday was so eventful, and take it easy.
While Joan was paying for another night, she noticed a sign, and got
some free rhubarb, and cooked it into a sauce for our morning cereal.
After lunch, we walked the interpretive trail around Wye Lake. It
was a nice little 2.5 km walk with several interpretive signs
explaining many of the plants in the area, and had a section about
each one explaining how the natives used them for food and medicinal
purposes. We even had an explanation about how Cypress Hills on the
border of Alberta and Saskatchewan in the south was named for it's
lodgepole pines, because the early explorers thought they were jack
pines, which are called 'cypres' in French.
We drove from Watson Lake Thursday
morning toward Teslin Lake. Although it was drizzling most of the
way, we were able to do a 10 minute walk to Rancheria Falls during a
dry spell.
We stopped at a lookout over Teslin Lake for lunch, then
fueled up at a decent price, with a 4 cent per litre discount. It
was overcast and rainy, so we weren't able to see much of the hills
along the way, so we decided to carry on toward Whitehorse. Despite
the lack of sun, there were no animals visible today. We stopped
at Johnson's Crossing for their world famous cinnamon buns. Although
good, the ones we had at Tetsa River Services were richer, so worth
the extra $2 they charged. We stopped at Pioneer RV Campground,
which is about 10 km from downtown Whitehorse. We have good wi-fi,
and finally have service on our cell phone. The cable TV has a wide
selection of channels, so gave up after a quick check for the
satellite signal in the rain.
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